1. Field of the Invention
The Internet and the diversity and wealth of HTML-based Internet content available makes it desirable to exploit such content. The invention relates to a system and method by which HTML-based content is processed and distributed to a client in a manner which facilitates its delivery to the client.
2. Description of the Related Art
The most common mechanism to access Internet content today is through the use of a personal computer. Much of that Internet content is accessible as or via HTML-based (Hypertext Markup Language) Web pages. To access this content a user generally uses a personal computer (xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d), for example, an Apple Macintosh or a PC running Microsoft Windows. In general, these PCs are configured with fast processors such as PowerPCs or Intel Pentium microprocessors and large amounts of memory. This level of hardware is necessary to effectively run today""s resource intensive and full-featured Web browsers, like Netscapes Navigator, which processes the HTML-based Web page into a graphical screen capable in interacting with the user and Web servers. These PCs are connected to the Internet (and ultimately a Web server) usually via an ISP or online service using a modem line or a high-speed data link (symmetric or asymmetric), like a T1 (1.5 megabits per second) or T3 (45 megabits per second). These modem lines or high-speed data links are necessary due to the large amounts of data being transferred to the PC.
Communications over the Internet require that the PC has two-way, interactive, communications with the Internet content server. In the case of Web browsers, for example, the browser (running on a PC) initiates a request to a Web server for content (via a xe2x80x9creturn channelxe2x80x9d). The Web server responds by sending the requested content, usually in HTML, to the browser (via a xe2x80x9cforward channelxe2x80x9d). The browser receives the HTML data, processes it and displays the Internet content as a graphical Web page to the user. Often these Web pages have hyperlinks embedded in the Web page which allow the user to request further Internet content. These hyperlinks are xe2x80x9caddressesxe2x80x9d or Uniform Resource Locator (URL""s) which tell the browser where to find the content. By selecting a hyperlink, the user tells the browser to send a request to the computer hosting that Web page for that content or to jump to another section of a Web page.
Given the expense and complexity involved in purchasing and using a PC not all households have a PC. Even households that have PC may not have an Internet account due in part to costs and the inconvenience of tying up a telephone line during an online session. In contrast, most households today have television sets connected to receive cable services or wireless broadcasts and more advanced systems are moving toward a fully digital video broadcasting system, and thus may be used to transmit data. Unfortunately, under the present television broadcasting system, the frequency bandwidth allocation favors video and audio with only a small amount dedicated to data services. Accordingly, the amount of data that can be transferred via the forward channel is very limited and downloading multiple graphics, which are a mainstay of today""s Web pages, would thus be unacceptably slow given the limited bandwidth. Moreover, even if Internet content were able to be provided to a user and displayed on a television set, there is often a very limited or no return channel capability, that is, the client is unable, for example, to communicate back to a Web server to request a Web page. Yet further, Web pages are designed for displaying on PC monitors, not television sets. Thus, displaying such a page on a television screen generally results in poor image quality and navigating around the page and accessing the hypertext links for a page designed for display on a PC is nearly impossible.
The problem of limited bandwidth is often further exacerbated by the requirement of a low-cost client. In a broadcast marketing paradigm, these clients are often distributed by a broadcast service provider and leased or sold to viewers and thus it is imperative to minimize the costs of these clients. This can be accomplished by configuring the client with a low-cost CPU (i.e. slow) which may be able to perform only 2-6 million instructions per second (xe2x80x9cMIPSxe2x80x9d). In contrast, a CPU performing at 180 megahertz in a typical PC today, like the PowerPC, is able to perform around 50-70 MIPS, or higher. To further reduce costs, the client is usually configured with a very small memory footprint in the area of 1-4 megabytes. This type of client is usually unable to effectively process the amount of data contained in a graphically intense Web page, and can not communicate with the Web server due in part to its lack of a return channel, much less run today""s resource intensive Web browsers.
Although Internet access devices using a television set are available, such as WebTV""s set-top box for instance, these systems require the use of a telephone line as in today""s dial-up lines. This allows the Internet access device forward and return channels to the Internet with adequate bandwidth for data transfer. These devices are thus like a simplified PC and only use the television as a display device and do not solve the above problem of getting Internet content to a client constrained by memory, CPU requirements, a network with a limited forward channel and/or limited or no return channel.
The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems associated with the bandwidth and/or CPU and memory limitations of a client processing Internet content. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, Internet content is first processed by the head end into partitions. Each partition is designed to be displayed as one screen of a display device. Information relating to the URLs and cross references to other partitions are also created and these partitions and information are transmitted to the client along with command tags which allow the client to simulate the experience of navigating and interacting with, for example, Web sites. The present invention is, of course, not limited to Internet content. For instance, internal networks can benefit from application of the present invention to reduce the bandwidth and processing power requirements. Another system that may practice the present invention would be in the use of kiosks where again limited bandwidth and low processing power are factors.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to distribute Internet content to a processor to be displayed on an output device by collecting the Internet content, generating bit-mapped images from the Internet content for delivery to the processor, and distributing the bit-mapped images to the processor for presentation of the bit-mapped images to a user.
It is also an object of the present invention to distribute Internet content to a processor to be displayed on an output device by collecting Internet content, generating a first bit-mapped image of said Internet content wherein the Internet content includes a link and the first bit-mapped image includes a visual representation of said link, partitioning the first bit-mapped image into a set of bit-mapped images wherein each image in said set of bit-mapped images is suitable for display on the output device, generating a link tag for the link wherein the link tag is associated with the link, the visual representation of said link, and the image in said set of bit-mapped images which contains said visual link, and distributing the link tag and the set of bit-mapped images to the processor.
It is also an object of this invention to distribute Internet content by generating a first and second bit-mapped image of said respective first and second Internet content wherein said first Internet content contains a link referencing said second Internet content and first said first bit-mapped image contains a visual representation of said link, partitioning said first and second bit-mapped image into a first and second set of bit-mapped images wherein each image in said first and second set of bit-mapped images is suitable for display on the output device, generating a link tag for said link in said first set of bit-mapped images wherein said link tags are associated with said link, said visual representation of said link, and an image in said set of second bit-mapped images, and distributing said link tag and said set of second bit-mapped images to the processor.
It is also an object of this invention to distribute Internet content to a processor for displaying on an output device by generating a first and second bit-mapped image of said respective first and second Internet content wherein said first Internet content contains a link referencing said second Internet content and first said first bitmapped image contains a visual representation of said link, partitioning said first and second bit-mapped image into a first and second set of partitions comprised of bitmapped images wherein each image in said first and second set of partitions is suitable for display on the output device, assigning a unique partition id to each partition in said first and second set of partitions, generating a link tag for said link in said first set of bitmapped images, associating said link tag with said partition id of said partition in said second set of partition which the link tag refers, and distributing said link tag and said first and second set of partitions to the processor.
These and additional objects of this invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof in connection with the attached drawings.